Nic Compton
John McShea, at the helm, built the launch HAYDEN, a bespoke wooden launch inspired by historic local types of Salcombe, Devon, England. His client Bradley Worsfold, seated amidships, and his wife, Tracey, commissioned the boat.
There’s no doubt about it: Bradley and Tracey Worsfold are living the dream. After selling their highly successful online-instruction business in 2021, they disposed of their home in fashionable Marlow on the River Thames in Buckinghamshire, England, and moved to no-less-fashionable Salcombe in Devon—or, to be precise, East Portlemouth, across the Kingsbridge Estuary from Salcombe. Their new house overlooks one of the finest beaches in the area, with spectacular vistas of Salcombe and the estuary. But lately there has been something distracting the couple from the undoubtedly scenic views.
“Every morning I wake up, and I come out here with a cup of coffee, and make sure she’s still there, that someone hasn’t stolen her—and of course she is still there,” Bradley says. “Sometimes when the tide goes right out and she settles down, she drops over this way and shows off her lovely brightwork. I can walk down there and find five or six people just looking at her, taking photos. She’s very beautiful, and she makes me very happy.”
Bradley is talking about the couple’s latest acquisition: HAYDEN, a 19′6″ gentleman’s launch, which they keep on a mooring in front of their house, all the better to admire her first thing in the morning, all through the day, and last thing at night. HAYDEN is in many ways a quintessential lapstrake-planked (“clinker-built” in English parlance) launch of the type that has been ploughing these waters for the past hundred years, first as workboats, then increasingly for leisure. Before the advent of the now-ubiquitous inflatable boats, there would have been dozens of these launches pottering up and down the estuary. Now just a handful are left.